Christian Nationalism. The latest "slur" from the Left.
Christian Nationalism is a term that only a few Christians have used to describe themselves but this label has recently been weaponized by the Left to mean Christians who want to impose a Biblical theocracy on America.
A recent statement by former MSNBC and current Politico reporter Heidi Przbyla sums up this viewpoint. Here is a link to the 21 second quote that has gone viral in the last week:
Here is my transcription of this viral video, though I encourage you also watch the video to see her eye rolls and the disdain in her voice as she gives her description of “Christian Nationalists.”
[T]he one thing that unties all of them, because there’s many different groups orbiting Trump, but the thing that unites them as Christian Nationalists, not Christians by the way, because Christian Nationalist is very different, is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority, they don’t come from Congress, they don’t come from the Supreme Court, they come from God.
Przbyla defines Christian Nationalist as being different from Christians in general because she wants to tar the former with being some sort of Christian extremists. But historical Christianity of all streams - Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant - is based on God creating mankind in His image and giving them rights and dignity as His children. She is creating a straw man to impugn anyone who dares bring Judeo-Christian morality into the political debate.
Unfortunately for her straw man argument, our Founders also believed in this natural law, as stated in our Declaration of Independence, a foundation document for our nation and precursor to our Constitution. So the problem in her position (that she is ignoring) is that if believing in natural law makes one an extremist, then the Founders are extremists, as are all freedom loving Americans!
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. (Emphasis added)
Ms. Przbyla’s entire statement on the All in With Chris Hayes show gives more context than the short viral clip, although arguably she digs for herself an even deeper hole in the extended clip. This video was posted by Ms. Przbyla on her own X account and is her response to the controversy. Again, I encourage you to watch the video and not just read my transcript so you get the full sense of her attitude towards “Christian Nationalists.” The italicized text in the transcript is the portion that was in the viral video.
Przbyla; I spoke with a lot of experts on this and I’ve seen it myself with my reporting, Michael, which is that the base of the Republican party has shifted right. Remember when Trump ran in 2016 a lot of the mainline Evangelicals wanted nothing to do with the divorced, ah, you know, real estate mogul who had cheated on his wife with a porn star, and all of that, right? So what happened was he was surrounded by this more extremist element. You’re going to hear words like Christian Nationalism, like the New Apostolic Reformation. These are groups that you should get very, ah, very schooled on because they have a lot of power in Trump’s circle and the one thing that unties all of them, because there’s many different groups orbiting Trump, but the thing that unites them as Christian Nationalists, not Christians by the way, because Christian Nationalist is very different, is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority, they don’t come from Congress, they don’t come from the Supreme Court, they come from God. The problem with that is that they are determining man, men, there that is, men, are determining what God is telling them. And in the past, that so-called natural law, you know, is a pillar of Catholicism, for instance, has been used for good in social justice campaigns. Martin Luther King evoked it in talking about civil rights but now you have an extremist element of conservative Christians who say that this applies specifically to issues including abortion, gay marriage. And it’s going much farther than that as you see for instance with the ruling in Alabama this week that judges connected to that dominionist faction in talking about a lot more issues including surrogacy, IVF, you know, sex education in schools, there’s a lot in addition …
Guest host Michael Steele: And therein lies the rub, Dexter [the other guest], because men are the ones who get to decide what God thinks and feels about these issues, you know. Surrogacy or IVF. You report that Matt Gaetz wants to remake the GOP in his image . Apparently so does Mike Johnson. … (Emphasis in original)
Ms. Przbyla clearly has a problem with men (I assume she means mankind) determining what God is telling them, although she clearly has no trouble declaring authoritatively that progressive causes like social justice are good applications of natural law but abortion and gay marriage are not. The ones she labels “Christian Nationalists” aren’t qualified to discern God’s will but apparently to good progressives like Heidi Przbyla, the applications are obvious.
Here is more of Ms. Przbyla’s view on the matter from her X account:
While there are different wings of Christian Nationalism, they are bound by their belief that our rights come from God. If you are Hindu, Jewish etc, this might help you understand the next part of my point, which is they are using this for a man-made policy agenda.
which distinguishes this from other Christians who leave these God-given rights at our inherent right to "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" -- vs banning abortion, contraception etc.
Apparently following the notions of Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are permitted for Christians in Ms. Przbyla’s worldview as long as those notions don’t include pursuing any specific conservative policies.
The Left and all tyrants believe that rights come from government, as apparently does Ms. Przbyla. And if rights come from government, than governments can take them away. We’ve seen this clearly in the UK, Australia and Canada, where the governments have take away their peoples’ rights to free speech, assembly and bodily autonomy in recent years.
Our Founders took the more Biblical position that rights come from God. The Uniparty and the Biden Administration are pushing against those rights every way they can but it has been much harder for them to make headway with our Constitution and tradition of “God given rights.”
There is much more to be said about “Christian Nationalism” so stay tuned. . . .